MinuteScience: Counting Horseshoe Crabs – A Keystone Species Connects Communities to Science
Date/Time: Thursday, July 29, 2021, from 3:00 PM to 4:15 PM EDT
On July 29, Delaware Sea Grant will host a #75MinuteScience professional development webinar about horseshoe crabs. This webinar will highlight the biology and importance of horseshoe crabs as well as the annual horseshoe crab spawning survey. The webinar will also showcase a new online classroom resource that allows students to explore Big Stone Beach, one of the horseshoe crab spawning survey sites. See below for more information about the webinar and how to register.
Horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) are an ecologically, economically, and medically important species. Each spring, millions of horseshoe crabs come to the beaches of the Delaware Bay to lay their eggs. Since 1990, citizen scientists and researchers have surveyed the spawning horseshoe crabs along the beaches of Delaware and New Jersey. The data from this survey is then used to make important management decisions.
In this webinar, representatives from Delaware Sea Grant will provide participants with a background on horseshoe crabs, the spawning survey, and how the data collected is used to help managers make decisions, focusing on their work at Big Stone Beach in Delaware. In addition, participants will learn about how Delaware Sea Grant is creating tools and programs to educate the public and school students about this important keystone species and their habitat.